Jatujak: Going Thai with a Delivery Discount

Wanting to go try Thai for some time, we finally get a chance when an online delivery site had a promo. We got a 50% off discount with minimum purchase. Here are some of the Thai delights we tried.


Pomelo and Prawn Salad

Starting off healthy, we had salad. I think there were two kinds of pomelo on this salad. One was more pinkish and softer while the other was paler in color and a bit tougher which provided a good mix of texture. The vinaigrette went well with the meaty pomelo. Shrimps were plump but I would have loved it more if there were more shrimps.


Pad Thai (shrimp)

Noodles with sweet - sour tamarind based sauce and topped with fried egg (to the point of being toasted) with some pieces of shrimp for our first Pad Thai. Our second order of Pad Thai, which was the chicken variant (not in photo) has less toasted egg. This is a different take on the more common noodles which usually has a salty soy based sauce.


Cashew Chicken

Wandering a bit into the spicier side we have Cashew Chicken. It kind of reminded of of Kung Pao Chicken.


Thai Fried Spring Rolls (pork) - Poh Pia

Glass noodles and ground pork filled up these bigger versions of the lumpiang shanghai.


Flat Noodles with Kailan Leaves in Gravy Sauce (seafood) - Sen Yay Radna

This had thicker noodles and more seafood toppings like shrimp, squid, and oyster compared to the Pad Thai. The noodles on this one were more saucy and sweeter. But I still prefer the noodles and sauce of the Pad Thai that has a hint of sourness, though this wins in terms of amount of toppings.


Chicken wrapped in Pandan Leaves - Gai hor bai toey

Five pieces of chicken fillets wrapped in pandan leaves glisten in its own glossy oils. You may pair this with rice or even noodles for a dose of protein.


Overall, sweet and sour are the dominant tastes in Thai food we ordered. The delivery discount promotion runs until Nov 20.

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Seryna: Bento Lunch at Little Tokyo

Continuing our Little Tokyo visit, we headed to Seryna for lunch.

We arrived right when the restaurant opened. Three kinds of seating were available. First is the lowered seating you see in the photo above. Next is the normal seating. Last is the few seats at the sushi bar.

Complementary hot or cold tea is available. We ordered three different lunch bento sets which all come with soup, salad, fruit, and rice.

The sushi chef in action! You get to see your sushi and sashimi orders being prepared here. Excited to see my kaizen gozen lunch set.

Kaizen Gozen Bento

Two layer bento box. The top layer has mixed sashimi and shredded radish. The second layer had the vinegared rice, tamago, and some ginger. It my first time to try some of the sashimi in the bowl since my previous sashimi experience only involved tuna and salmon. Uni , salmon roe, two other fish sashimis, were served in the box.


Sukiyaki Bento

Sweet, tangy, tender beef strips make up their sukiyaki. The amount of beef and the taste is sure to leave one full and satisfied.

Sabayaki Bento

For those who prefer (cooked) fish, they also offer three kinds of grilled fish. We ordered the mackerel one.

I would also like to add that the grapes in their sets were the one of the sweetest I ever tasted. Serves as the perfect fruit dessert. We definitely had a filling meal.

To closecout our Little Tokyo series, here is a photo of their wine wall. Cheers to more lunches like this!


Branch visited located at: Little Tokyo, Makati City

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Four Seasons: Hot Pot Buffet

Celebrating my birthday, we availed the birthday promo of a Four Seasons, a hot pot buffet. The celebrant gets to eat for free when dining on the exact date of birth provided that at least one full paying adult comes along.


Stations

There are a number of stations where you can get ingredients for your hot pot. From the common fish balls, sausages, dumplings, to innards, seafood and meat. They even have a premium station if you are looking for more sophisticated ingredients (although you have to pay additional per ingredient from the premium station).

What you can find at some of the stations:

Fish, squid, shrimp, shell fish and more seafood...

Liver, gizzard, innards, and other parts...

Dimsum and dumplings..

More dumplings...

Sausages, crab cakes, dimsum...

Condiments...

They also offer salad and appetizer.

Salad station...

Sushi and maki...

A vegetable wall, beverage area, and dessert station are also available.


Hot pot time!

Step 1: choose two soups for the base. We chose seafood and pork. In the photo below, we already put some of the dimsum and dumplings in.

Step: 2: Put in your ingredients. Aside from the dimsum and dumplings, we put in a number of seafood too.

Tried out eel. It turned out okay but the skin part is slippery for me.

Also tried the sea mantis. It's kind of a cross between a shrimp and a lobster and a crab. It's quite a task to shell it though.

Hoisin sauce, oyster sauce, ginger and garlic in the four black bowls.
Some dried squid in the round white bowl, scallops in the small square bowl
Parrot fish meat and squid in the two square bowls below.

Here we have a variety of meat slices.

Ah, the empty containers of seafood.

Cooked

Seafood

Shrimp, scallops, squid, crab, eel, sea mantis

Dumplings and mini sausages

Dessert

Assorted desserts and tea

The four desserts on the left half: banoffee pie, coffee jelly, revel bar, and guava panna cotta.
The apple cinnamon and raisin tea was good too.

Yogurt

Sprinkles and mallows are staple toppings on my yogurt. Since there are no cornflakes, I settled with Koko crunch for a cereal-y touch.


Usually, we stay for around 2 hours in a buffet place since we get quite full after an hour and a half. This time, we stayed for almost 4 hours. Perhaps an hour or so was spent on cooking and shelling the food. We did not get to eat as much in an hour compared to when we just get ready to eat food from trays.

My opinion on cook your own food is still the same - it's an additional task to cook your food when you can just get ready to eat food elsewhere, but cooking it yourself is part of the whole dining experience.

And here are some of my favorite dining experiences of the night:
I got to try the sea mantis for the first time. It is kind of hard to remove the shell, but I ended up eating a few of those.
We got curious about the "home made cuttlefish noodles" which turned out to have the same taste the same as squid balls, but in noodle form.
The apple cinnamon & raisin tea is a perfect companion for dessert.
I also got to make my own yogurt concoction again.

At Four Seasons, you are able to decide what goes in your hot pot may it be dimsum, seafood, vegetables, or meat. By using the condiments, you can adjust the taste according to your liking. So if you are into hot pot and customization, this place is a buffet of ingredients and your table is your own kitchen.

Branch visited located at: SM by the Bay, SM Mall of Asia, Pasay City

Backlog Post: Highlands Prime Steakhouse

Sifting through my files, I found some photos of our Highlands Prime Steakhouse visit last July 2014. We ate there twice that week.

It was as if we walked into a log cabin when we entered the establishment. The place was quite spacious and has extra space to accommodate a grand piano. Seats overlooking the Manila Bay are also available. Here are some photos of what we had:


Steak

We ordered some meat...

Butterfly Prawns

...and some seafood as well.

Mango Cheesecake

That swirly mango garnish is made from a sour mango. I expected something sweet when I ate that whole mango garnish but I was greeted with sourness. The cheesecake was quite thick and rich.

And a few days after our lunch, we decided to have our dinner there. This time, there was a pianist playing some songs on the piano which enhanced the ambiance of the place. We tried the following dishes:

Espresso Apricot Chicken

Tasted some of the coffee and apricot in there.

Salmon Tornado

This salmon steak was the seafood of the night.


Mango Panna Cotta

A lighter dessert compared to the mango cheesecake. Still, there was a sour mango garnish. The panna cotta itself was milky and creamy.

I want to visit again and relive the taste of the food!


Branch visited located at: 2nd floor, Entertainment Mall, Mall of Asia, Pasay City

*This is a backlog post. Actual food expedition was made over a few months ago.

Manam: Filipino Food Twists

Off to try more food with twists, we went to Manam. Their menu is already divided into two sides - the classics side and the twists side. Everything we ordered on this visit was from the twists side of the menu.


Sinigang na Beef Short Rib with Watermelon

Fruity sweet with a hint of sour - this sinigang is not the conventional strong sour soup.

The sinigang, as its name suggests, had watermelon in it which gave it a red color and fruity taste. I kind of wondered whether I was slurping sour fruit juice. It also had some tomatoes. The beef was okay, but not the melt-in-your-mouth type of tender.


Seafood Bounty Kare-kare

A bowl filled with seafood was served - crab, squid, fish, mussels, and shrimp on top. The sauce itself was nutty and had actual peanut chunks in it. I just hope there was more crab meat in the crab shell. Bagoong was also served on the side


Pancit Canton

Purple cabbage and orange sweet potato served as colorful highlights to the common noodle dish. Though the noodles were a bit salty for me, the sweet potato neutralized it. Toppings also included pork, string beans, and fried tofu.



Turon with Mango and Kesong Puti

Usually, turon has a crunchy deep fried, sugary coated wrapper that is filled with banana. This one has mango and cheese in it.

The mango was a little sweet and a little sour that is just right to balance the sweetness covering the wrapper. There was definitely some creaminess in there but I did not really taste much of the cheese. Let me describe this dessert with four words - crunch, cream, sour, and sweet. This is my favorite among what we ordered.

Overall, their viands would go well with rice. (It was a little salty, but I think I have lower tolerance for salty food than most people haha.)


Branch visited located at: Ground floor, Mall of Asia, Pasay City

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